And now, more to the point regarding that Campaign Legal Center item — meant, I suppose, to put the money spent by the campaign-finance-reform lobby in some kind of context — here are some more relevant figures.

The CLC may think that all of the money spent on the 2004 election is somehow a relevant figure, but I’d say let’s look at the CFR lobby versus other special-interest groups.

And, to do so, we have figures from another member of the CFR lobby (remember, I’ve never questioned the accuracy of any of these groups, just connected the dots between them and their liberal foundation backers) the Center for Responsive Politics.

So, here’s what some major industries gave in campaign contributions from 1990-2004:

Lawyers and Law Firms: $652 million
Securities and Investments: $390 million
Insurance: $234 million
Oil & Gas: $180 million
Public Sector Unions: $143 million
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products: $119 million
Education: $96 million

Now, it’s not exactly apples to apples. The CFR money was spent on think tanks and lawyers, and the industry contributions were, well, contributions.

But these industry contribution totals encompass two full election cycles (1990 and 1992) more than the Political Money Line total (which counts from 1994 to 2004).

The $132 million spent by the CFR lobby in 10 years is right up there with any of these other industries’ spending over 14 years.